I have apparently been spoiled by CATIA (which i'm not paying for- duh!), as my search for a home CAD has left me gritting my teeth as I try out Rhino. Right price, but too much squinting involved, and not true parametric/associative.

There are others that are p/a, but with industrial strength prices...

What are folks using now (2012 as opposed to 2005), do they like what they use (or just grit their teeth), and how much did they cost???

I have apparently been spoiled by CATIA (which i'm not paying for- duh!), as my search for a home CAD has left me gritting my teeth as I try out Rhino. Right price, but too much squinting involved, and not true parametric/associative.

There are others that are p/a, but with industrial strength prices...

What are folks using now (2012 as opposed to 2005), do they like what they use (or just grit their teeth), and how much did they cost???

Weasel

Greetings
My current software of choice is Blender http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/. Its not a CAD program but a 3d modeling,texturing ,animating and rendering package along the lines of 3dsMax but lacking some of Max's bells and whistles. Like all such packages it comes with a steep learning curve. On the upside its open source software and its is free. Major improvements over the last few years has resulted in a pretty darn good package. Although its not a CAD program it may be worth taking a look at and the price is rite.